Thursday, December 1, 2016

The purpose of IT transformation is to empower employees, enable business growth, and enlighten customers.Digital means flow - data flow, information flow, and mind flow. Digital organizations have to adapt to the continuous changes and business dynamic in striving to become digital masters. Digital transformation is a natural process and rather effortless to maintain, The bottom line is how well the organization is being influenced by varying business factors such as communication, structure, management methodology or approach. IT transformation is an integrated part of the digital transformation of the business. IT transformation is on the horizon when it is designed to change, from a static support function to an innovative growth engine.

IT Transformation is on the horizon when you can change the mentality, and that is not easy: Forward-looking organizations empower IT to drive digital transformation. Because IT is in a unique position to oversee underlying business processes and weave all hard and soft elements to orchestrate digital transformation. Any change starts at the mentality level. Taking a couple of change initiatives is an easy part, the difficult part is to understand the psychology behind changes. What needs to worry is the danger of a company adopting a couple of simple rules without doing the difficult work to change the mentality. It might even have an adverse effect on feeding cynicism in the company. Because such an approach won't have any favorable and sustaining effect. Change can only be sustained when the collective mind is shifting from mindset to mind flow, engage all employees in improving their processes, and create the expectation that positive behaviors and mutual respect are valued above everything else. The organization has to be open to innovation and rules can't change that. Rules alone will not allow innovation to be productive. Organization structure and its impact on efficiency and innovation could play either positive or negative impact. The right structure is one that allows the right mentality and culture to bloom.

IT Transformation is on the horizon when IT is integrated into the business with high maturity: The digital paradigm shift means IT is transforming from being a reactive, engine room culture to one that is agile and develops the capabilities to drive business growth and perpetual improvement. IT continues to reach a higher level of maturity. CIOs should build a very collaborative relationship with all peer CxOs because IT is a value-added solutionary to the entire company. For any business unit to be successful they need to partner with IT. IT not only needs to optimize its own structure to keep fit but also helps the organization tune the digital organizational structure & design, in order to bridge the gaps between IT and business, to integrate IT into the business and to improve overall business maturity. More specifically, the digital transformation effort includes things like portfolio rationalization, enterprise roadmaps, operational reliability metrics/dashboard and human capital management strategy, etc.

IT Transformation is on the horizon when cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement are the new normal: The enterprise consists of an amalgam of socio-systems, techno-systems, bio-systems, and Econo-systems. A transformation needs strategic guideline and policy setting, but not restricted rules. It takes greater transparency, trust, and collaboration leveraging repeatable process, expectation management and support from C-Level peers, and buy-in from staff is also equally important. The digital business objective is to begin to break down silo walls and utilize the human potential of continuous improvement for a more by-the-people reorganization. These wins achieved by the cross-functional teams have a positive impact on business-side perceptions of IT. The key to success is to ensure internal discussion, communication, agreement and collaboration to deliver on the common goal - value to and enabling the business. This is how to breaking down the silos and understanding the interdependencies.

IT transformation is on the horizon when it is designed to change. IT needs to become a change organization, to drive digital transformation across the entire company scope. The purpose of IT transformation is to empower employees, enable business growth, and enlighten customers, to run a high-performance, high-innovative and high-mature digital organization.